Minnesota winters can be tough, snow, sometimes sleet, wind and what the state is famous for: frigid temps.

In what was one of the coldest winters in some time, a little lost soul was brought to us. Wandering the streets for who knows how long, scavenging for whatever he could eat, eating snow and if lucky, finding broken ice on a puddle to drink from.

In a travel carrier, huddled way in the back was a mat of fur, dirty and very odorous. Two almost visible black eyes peered out from a tiny frame of a dog.

At 20-below wind-chill, water freezes in mid-air when thrown. Skin becomes frostbitten within minutes, cars do not start, countless lost animals roam the countryside and city streets, and he was one of them.

“Buddy” as I called him, as I befriended him and began to shave him and remove the intense mat of fur that restricted him from moving his neck or defecating. This little guy had to turn his entire body to look behind him, the mat was so restrictive!

When the final piece of mat was removed (I was able to remove the upper shell of a mat in one piece, see middle photo), a Maltese leaped into the air and ran around the grooming room as if to say “thank you, I’m free”!

Buddy was saved from a very traumatic life. He escaped with some razor burn and some fecal/ urine scald to his back side. He is in a foster home right now regaining his strength and being spoiled rotten, living the life he was meant to have in the first place.